


Love Keeps the Cold at Bay

by WinglessCrows



Series: Through the Eyes of a Cook [36]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-05-27 07:56:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15020120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinglessCrows/pseuds/WinglessCrows
Summary: A cold is sweeping through the strawhat crew, and Sanji tries his best no to catch it.





	Love Keeps the Cold at Bay

It began in the morning. Nami arrived for breakfast alone, and told Chopper that Robin wasn't feeling too well. The reindeer had immediately left to check up on their archaeologist, and returned not long after, reassuring everyone that it was nothing but a common cold. It would pass soon, if she just rested. When Chopper went to return to the Girls' Room with some medicine, Sanji handed him a pot of tea to give to Robin as well. He couldn't very well sit idly by when one of the girls was ill.

About an hour after breakfast, Nami sneezed, but figured that it was just the chilly weather. Another hour passed, and she began to feel her head throbbing and went to Sanji for a warm drink. She didn't leave when she had finished, but asked for another and as Sanji served her the second drink she asked why the kitchen was so cold. Sanji raised an eyebrow, and when she sneezed again, Chopper told her to go rest until her cold had calmed.

Lunch came and went as usual, except that the girls were eating in their room with Chopper taking care of them. The girls not being there meant that the boys were a little messier than usual. Sanji allowed them to have their fun, as long as no food was wasted and they stayed out of the kitchen. Besides, he always liked laughter better than awkward silence, and he was glad that the girls being down with a cold wasn't enough to shake the crew.

Next one to go down was Franky. It had suddenly started to snow. Not much, but Sanji was sure that Luffy would be able to build snowmen the next hour. Although it didn't snow much it was still cold enough for even Luffy to have put on a coat without anyone making him. Yet Franky was still going around half-naked and when Chopper confirmed that he indeed had a mild fever, he sent him straight to bed.

Apparently the saying  _idiots don't catch colds_ was a lie. The combination of the cold weather that now even Chopper was finding uncomfortable, and the bacteria that was obviously roaming their ship was obviously a bad thing. Sanji started suspecting something was up when their always energetic captain ran out of steam before dinner. He quickly had Chopper check on him and he was glad he had noticed the slight change. But just because they knew Luffy was ill didn't actually make their situation easier. Luffy was hard to deal with because he didn't want to admit that he'd caught the cold as well. He didn't like to be bedridden, and the only reason that he didn't protest when injured was because he slept through it all. What convinced him in the end was Franky's promise of making their sick time fun. He had some new small things he wanted to make, and Luffy loved gadgets... as long as he wasn't the one making them. He just didn't have the attention span for it. Chopper only allowed it as it would keep Luffy occupied, and Franky was reasonable enough to not push himself or make something that could blow up.

It should have been predictable that the person to fall after Luffy would be Zoro. It only made sense. He had asked Sanji for a drink, and when the cook had snapped at him for not asking nicely, Zoro had just sighed and Sanji knew that something was up. He had expected for Zoro to protest like their captain, and claim to be perfectly fine, but Chopper was experienced in dealing with Zoro. Unlike Luffy he rarely slept through his injuries and the little doctor had his fair shares of troubles when it came to making Zoro rest.

So when it was time for dinner, it was only Chopper, Usopp, Brook and Sanji himself who had escaped the cold. Why Chopper wasn't down yet was a mystery, but at least the others made sense. Sanji had spent more time in the kitchen than he usually did as it had been the girls who'd gotten ill first. He'd used most of his time making them the best drinks and snacks for recovery, only going out when he figured people could use something warm to get them through the snowy weather. Usopp had been working on something the whole day and had hardly interacted with anyone. Sanji had even had to bring him his lunch, because he hadn't paid attention to the time. Brook was a skeleton and couldn't catch colds, so even if they all became victims to it, at least he could take care of them.

However right now the four of them were gathered in the kitchen. By some miracle all the ill crew members were sleeping, and Chopper was taking a well deserved break.

"Are we still moving?" Usopp suddenly asked putting down his bowl of soup. Sanji was making sure to keep the cold away from the remaining crew members. It'd be bad if they all got ill.

"I believe we are," Brook answered with mouth full of food. Sanji would have reminded him of keeping his manners, but his mind was too tired to care right now.

"We should stop then," Usopp suggested, "Keep weather changes to the minimum. As long as we stay inside, the cold shouldn't be a problem."

And so they did as Usopp suggested. They might now have said it outright, but with Luffy and Zoro sleeping off their colds, Usopp was in charge. After dinner Brook went to help Chopper with his duties, and they made their rounds to the crew members, making sure that they were as comfortable as possible and resting properly. Usopp volunteered for watch and set of to the crows nest with some heat dials to keep him warm.

Sanji cleaned the kitchen, began cooking a new pot of soup which would get really tasty if left to simmer overnight, and then he made some snacks and warm drinks for Usopp. The Crow's Nest might be sheltered from the snow, but it still got cold incredibly quick. Sanji put on his coat, took the tray and some extra blankets, and headed for the Crow's Nest. The snow was still falling and since no one had bothered to clear out the deck, Sanji was now having trouble walking. The snow almost went all the way up to his knees, and as he walked he felt as his feet slowly got cold.

Once in the Crow's Nest, Sanji decided that he didn't want to go back out just yet, and stayed with Usopp, who was still working on something. Usopp thanked him for the drink and they sat together in silence, both wrapped in their blankets to keep the cold at bay. It wasn't even that cold in the room, as Usopp had very cleverly made full use of the heat dials by using wind dials to spread the heat around. Still, it was comforting to look at the snow, while you were snuggled up inside a soft shell.

"What are you doing?" Sanji then asked, because he couldn't really figure out what Usopp had been working on this whole time.

"Upgrading Nami's Clima Tact," Usopp answered like it was no big deal. Franky might be their shipwright, mechanic and general mecha nerd, but Usopp had a special talent for unique weapons. One could only look once at his slingshot to be instantly impressed by his skill. And that skill had only been polished as he and Franky had gotten along so well. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the first time they had met, Franky had brutally beat Usopp up and basically left him to die. Funny how fate sometimes worked.

Sanji turned his attention back to the window where he could see the lights in the kitchen. He saw the shadows of Brook and Chopper moving about, and then he could no longer see anything. With no warning the peacefully falling snow thickened and the wind made itself noticed. Before long a full blown snow storm was roaring outside, and Sanji refused to leave until it had calmed. He wasn't too fond of winter.

And then he sneezed.

Usopp immediately looked up and when their eyes met they both knew what was going on. The cold had taken another strawhat down.

"I should leave before I infect you too," Sanji said and was just about to get up when Usopp was suddenly beside him holding him down.

"You shouldn't go out during a storm," he said softly, though Sanji hinted the order in his voice.

"But you'll get ill too if I stay," Sanji said and tried to hold back another sneeze he knew was coming. Sensing this Usopp slowly moved away and Sanji sneezed into his blanket.

"I'll rather catch the cold than have you go out in that," Usopp gestured to the storm, which was getting worse by the minute, "We'll just stay as far away from each other than possible, and hope for the best."

"You're forgetting that this crew has no luck," Sanji said trying to make a joke, though his voice made the statement sound more grave than what he meant for it to.

"With all we've been through, I think that it's pretty lucky that we're still alive," Usopp retorted and smiled. He was probably right.

Usopp then moved to the tray Sanji had brought with him, and poured a cup of tea. However, he didn't drink it, instead he gave it to Sanji.

"I made that for you, you know," Sanji said, but took the tea. At this point he knew better than to go against Usopp's wishes.

"Yeah, but you probably need it more than me right now, besides, how long can this storm last. I'll make some for myself when we can get out of here."

As it happened, the storm lasted the entire night. At some point Sanji had fallen asleep, and was woken up by Chopper asking how he was feeling, and if he could walk to his bed by himself. Although his head was pounding, and he couldn't actually breathe through his nose, walking was no problem. Once inside the Men's Quarters Sanji collapsed on his bed and never even noticed as Chopper covered him with warm blankets.

Next time Sanji woke up the only one in the room was Usopp. He was awake, but obviously also recovering from a cold.

"I told you I should have left," Sanji said and caught Usopp's attention.

"I didn't catch it until morning so no harm done. I think the girls are fully recovered too." Usopp reassured him. Sanji was wondering if anyone knew him as well as Usopp did.

"And the guys?" Sanji asked, taking a look around the empty room.

"Chopper allowed for them to leave, as they no longer had fevers. They have been forbidden from moving around too much though."

"Good luck with keeping Luffy from running around," Sanji laughed, "It's a miracle that he stayed in bed yesterday."

Then something occurred to Sanji. If he was just sleeping and not attending to his duties, and Usopp wasn't there to cover for him, then who was cooking?

"Do you know-" Sanji started, but then something exploded and they looked at each other, dread in their eyes. Sanji burrowed his head in his pillow and screamed. He would murder the person who had dared mess up his kitchen.


End file.
